We have a dry basement, 

I've seen it now with my own eyes

YEAH!

This is greatly due in part to the fact that we now have 

stairs down to the basement. Very excited about this.

yes, the ceiling looks just a little bizarre

- not quite certain what the first company did to form it 

and have it come out this way

our first storage shelving unit in the cold-celler

this is in a small closet area under the stairs

looking from the bottom up, 

the structural formation of the staircase

We had a work day out in Darivka this past Saturday.

It was time to clean up! 

So members from my church in Kherson along with some extra helpers joined in to

MOVE TILES INTO STEPHEN'S HOUSE

Nick helping to separate out the boxes of tiles as it 

rained, then froze. Made the work a bit more challenging to accomplish.

STACKED WOOD

PREPARED THE GARDEN FOR WINTER

Valodya cutting back the grape vines for the winter.

AND SHARED IN FELLOWSHIP TOGETHER

Sashinka fixing lunch, 

joined by the two interim pastors of the church in Darivka.

Nick and Sveltlana, with other friends from church sharing lunch together, to warm up.

Vovo, a new believer in Christ, joining in as his work on Stephen's house

has required long hours of him, so he lives there temporarily.

Rejoicing in a good days work done!

Staircase to the cold cellar

Furnace chimney going in

it's quite a process 😊

LEGALITIES

the requirements for opening Stephen's home

• State paperwork completed
• Meeting standard requirements for our specific type of service
• Vehicle for the home
• Staff members need medical paper that say they are allowed to work with children
• Programing that provides development/progression for the young men. Annual plan and schedule of events.
• Finished building - needs to meet sanitary norms with enough light, accessible, space, etc.
• Food provision
• Assistants - need to have one or two people that have qualifications/diplomas stating that they are qualified to oversee and care for these kids/adults (one or two social service workers that will be hired to help us and Kamitra)
• No debts
• Medical staff that are qualified/having a diploma
• Tools and equipment to provide our social service

We would appreciate your prayers ~

This may seem like a short list, but comes with a l

ong list of underlying details that require a whole lot.

So the staircase to the basement/cold cellar 

has been a really big deal for a number of reasons.

The first being the wet basement this past spring that needed to be fixed before anything could be done. Once the wetbase walls and then floor were solved

 what materials to actually build the stairs out of has been an ongoing discussion. 

Concrete is standard here. If you've seen any Russian 

films or visited this country, you understand a few things;

first, Ukrainians love to build with concrete, 

two, concrete is not produced in a great quality, so it deteriorates more quickly, 

three, stairs of good quality where every step is the same rise and run is unusual. 

Our building team working with us is changing these standards in part because we are thinking outside the box, no concrete😌. 

You can see here in these photos we are begining with metal framework. 

A sealed wooden rise and run will then be placed on the framework.

puzzle pieces?

guide for the placement of each stair

there are 27 stairs down to the bottom

So the green room has been toned down since Beverly and Rhonda put on the first coats. Sashinka and I worked, along with my friend Jen, to make the stripes on the walls, muting the brightness, and many of the stripes grew limbs😏. The theme of this room is the forest so the trees around the room's walls along with a few little birds will simply elaborate on the theme and go with the photo mural that will go up on one wall. We'll let you see the whole effect once it's finished, but for now, here's the progress of this bedroom, one of 4 for the young men.

Been Busy!

This is the safari bathroom

next to the main bathroom

There are two others that are in progress of getting completed then one more to go.

Walls are going up, as you've seen, but the interior walls are just about completed. The last team I had here, a week ago, helped to start to put some color on them.

Entry way walls framed up and

the team below standing in the room with four solid walls

One of the bedrooms themed with a bright sunny forest green.

Beverly and Rhonda putting on the first coats.

Sashinka painting light stripes that will become trees to tone down the brightness.
The green looked more muted on the paint swatch than it appeared on the wall 😊. 

The guys worked on the railing for the lofted attic space.

For future teams that come, this space will serve as a devos and team time sitting area with sleeping quarters to the back room that will be closed off.

Waiting to get the inspections done and approval for the home to be declared

residential, a home that can be lived in!

kitchen, side door

front door

garden courtyard door

getting started on one of the bathrooms

this is a central, main bathroom, 

stilling needing a few adjustments

dry wall going up in the main hall and kitchen areas